Peabody: Life, Friends Baseball

Coming out of the historically inept offensive years that 2010 and 2011 were for the Mariners, if Seattle fans were to be asked what is more critical, hitting or pitching, the question would have been handled derisively by a majority of folks. People would have asked if truth had shown itself to us and still we could not see from whence the sunlight emerged. That defense is not talked about much is an issue to ponder concurrently.

Lies, damn lies and statistics the statement attributed to Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli unfortunately puts sabermetrics somewhere towards the caboose in this train we’re riding into the mist, but plunge ahead through the scorched earth of recent Mariner history we shall do.

The five teams with the best run differential since the All Star break in the American League in order have been:

1. Tampa Bay 68
2. Oakland 53
3. Texas 32
4. Yankees 31
5. Mariners 26

The teams that have scored the most runs in the American league since the All Start break are:

1. Angels 244
2. Texas 227
3. Oakland 221
4. Yankees
5. Minnesota

The teams that have allowed the fewest runs and although this is thought to be pitching, it includes defense and some other stuff:

1. Tampa Bay 117
2. Seattle 154
3. Oakland 221
4. Detroit 202
5. Yankees 217

Texas is sixth with 227.

What’s it all about Alfie? Well, gee whiz Clark, I guess it seems, well, the pitching list is almost the same as the runs differential list at least in the top five, except Detroit which was just behind Seattle with 23. This is just after all etc. a small sample size, but there is probably some shiny ruby of truth in this stinking, fetid pile of…shoot fire let me say this to the empty chair, the Ms came in fifth in run differential largely on pitching and great defense. The Angels scored 64 more runs than the Ms, but the Ms are scoring more runs than they did last year and are on pace to score 284 runs in the second half of the season which is better than last year by some 30 runs, and almost 80 runs for the year.

If they have great pitching and defense they don’t have to score runs at the pace say that the Angels do, but they surely need to score more than they have in the past two years, which is 513 and 556. Tampa Bay is on path to score 680 runs or so which is less than their 707 from 2011, but they made the playoffs last year and will this year and were in the World Series in 08 with a relatively pedestrian 774, in what could be considered a year in which Steroids were still around.

I’m not sure why I threw that in, but in Safeco with pitching and defense if the Ms score 650 runs or more in a given year they should be in the hunt. So think about that when you’re playing roster fantasy and signing free agent softball hitter 1b/dhs.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mossle01.shtml

Sports Illustrated
June 25, 1979
Could Les Have Done More?
Rookie Manager Les Moss forged a winning record in Detroit, but the Tigers fired him in favor of Sparky Anderson
Jerry Green

Les Moss would fit right in among the tintypes hanging on the walls at Cooperstown. He blends well with the furniture in hotel lobbies. His ears are floppy and he wears wire-rimmed spectacles. His skin is leathery, and there are gouges in his face. He is a former catcher; his gnarled hands reveal his old trade. He usually holds a Dixie cup in one of them to catch his sprays of liquefied snuff. He has spent 35 of his 54 summers in organized baseball, trying to get someplace. During that time he has ridden a lot of buses that made stops in Americus, Elmira, Savannah, Lynchburg, Shreveport, Montgomery and Evansville.

He caught for 13 years in the major leagues, most of them with the hapless St. Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox. In 1959, the year Bill Veeck’s Sox won the pennant, Moss was sent back to the minors. There he spent the next two decades hoping that someday he would become a major league manager.

“Anybody who’s been around as long as I have wants it,” Moss says. “Some players like to get away from the game. I wanted to stay. If you want to stay in uniform, you want to manage if you can’t play. Ten or 15 years ago, yes, I thought more about the major leagues. But after you’ve been with minor league clubs for so long, you say it’ll be fine if it comes along. But you don’t expect it.”

Last September the Detroit Tigers unexpectedly appointed Moss as their manager for 1979. He had worked with most of the young Tigers when they played in Detroit’s minor league system, and the promotion to the big league club was a reward for years of faithful service. Besides, there was a vacancy. Ralph Houk, the Tiger manager for five seasons, had quit.

Moss doesn’t have an awful lot to say. After Detroit victories, all he would say to the hungry press was, “That was a dandy.” And his baseball face would erupt into a sunshine smile.

Last week, after a major league managerial career of 53 games, Moss was summoned to the executive suite at Tiger Stadium. Jim Campbell, the Detroit president and general manager, told Moss he had been fired. In the tradition of managerial dismissals, Moss was offered another position in the organization. Predictably, he accepted it.

Moss, though, was not fired for the traditional reason. He had not failed. His young team had won 11 of its previous 16 games and had a 27-26 record. The unpretentious Moss was fired so the Tigers could hire the ebullient—and hugely successful—Sparky Anderson, who had been given a pink slip by Cincinnati last November.

“I got information that Sparky was ready to go to work and that he was talking to another club,” Campbell says. “I don’t know what team it was that wanted him as manager. I wouldn’t ask him that. But when I heard he was ready to go to work, I had to act. Had Sparky not been available, we wouldn’t have changed managers.”

Anderson had won four pennants in nine years with the Reds, and his name is rumored to have been atop the list of possible managerial replacements in New York and San Francisco and a bunch of places in between. He says half a dozen clubs had contacted him during his exile, but he won’t identify them.

“I thought I’d sit out the entire season at home in California,” Anderson said after arriving in Detroit last Thursday. “It wasn’t tough until the Reds came out to Los Angeles late in May. Once I was down on the field, sat in the dugout and talked with all the players, it brought a lot of things back. I began getting very itchy. By June 1st my wife could see it coming. I listened harder to the Angels’ and Dodgers’ games. Before, I’d listen for a few innings and go do other things. By the 18th of June, I would have made a decision whether to go with another club. I can say I had an offer. But I won’t say from whom.”

Campbell telephoned Anderson on Monday morning, June 11, at his home in Thousand Oaks. They talked half a dozen times that day. During the last call, Anderson agreed to manage the Tigers through the 1984 season. His contract will pay him $110,000 this season and, with annual increases, will escalate to an estimated $160,000 in 1984.

On Monday night a fretting Campbell was unable to sleep. He rehearsed the words he would use to tell Moss he was fired 53 games into his one-year, $55,000 contract. Moss was called to the front office at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Campbell wondered whether to close the door or leave it open. At last, he shut it.

“Les, I’ve got to tell you something that’s not too pleasant,” Campbell said. “We’re changing managers. I’m bringing Sparky Anderson in to run the club.”

Moss looked at Campbell, soft blue eyes peering stoically through the wire-rimmed glasses. “Well, that’s baseball,” he said finally.

“I know I didn’t give you much of a chance,” said Campbell.

“I would have liked to have one full year at it,” Moss said.

Most of the Tiger players seemed genuinely stunned by Moss’ abrupt dismissal. Pitcher John Hiller, who has played for nine managers in Detroit, said, “I feel personally responsible. If I’d have pitched better, he might not have gotten fired.” Infielder Mark Wagner said, “I can’t even try to understand it. Les went out a winner. We were 27-26, weren’t we? He always has been a winner as far as I’m concerned.”

Only Outfielder Ron LeFlore, whom Moss had benched for disciplinary reasons one night this season, was critical of Moss. “There’s a great amount of talent here and it wasn’t used like it should have been,” LeFlore said. “Maybe he wasn’t forceful enough to manage up here.”

Three days later Moss reflected on his dismissal at his modest rented house in a workingman’s section of Detroit’s east side. Baseball memorabilia dominated the decor in the living room. In the kitchen, his wife Carol packed their belongings into cardboard boxes for the homeward drive to Florida. Their German shepherd barked at a visitor from the driveway.

“I’ve been an organization man all my life,” Moss said. “I’m not bitter. This was one of those things. It’s part of the business. I always said there’s no sympathy in baseball. I’ll scout National League clubs the rest of this year. If I get another big league job, I’ll jump at it. I’d like to manage in the big leagues. If I don’t get a job, I’ll work my tail off for the organization—like I have for 35 years.”

Moss was asked if he resented that he had been fired only because Anderson was available.

“That goes right back to what I said,” he said, smiling a little. “That’s baseball. They had a chance to get this guy.”

When Anderson took charge on Thursday night, he received a standing ovation from the crowd at Tiger Stadium. He stepped out of the dugout and waved his cap in salute to the fans. In the ensuing hours he would guide the Tigers to the first of three straight losses.

That night Moss went out of the house for the first time since he had been fired. He watched a slow-pitch softball game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Moss

Danny Hultzen has had a terrible time in Tacoma since his advancement from Jackson. Some reasons have been advanced, from his lack of command around the zone with better, more experienced hitters in AAA than AA.

One blogster suggested that he is no longer a prospect, by saying the Mariners should not draft players any further, which was also a shot at Dustin Ackley. Which is kind of stupid on all counts.

Last night Hultzen pitched tow and a third innings and gave up six hits and five walks…his ERA is over 6 and he was shut down prior to this start for a couple of weeks.

Going into spring training I wrote that of the Big Three, Walker, Paxton and Hultzen, I thought the best two were Walker and Paxton and I compared them to Dwight Gooden and Sam Mcdowell as reference points. I said Hultzen reminded me of Jarrod Washburn. I said so because of this mechanics, cross body, slinging kind of motion. Until his Senior season at Virginia, he was 89-90 and made a jump to 93-94. I worried about how his velocity changed, downward during games and across the season. Watch him throw below through the link. He steps towards first and then comes back. Honestly, he might be better suited as a relief pitcher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PZUfkDsxcA

Which gets us back to the blogster’s remarks above. The Mariners under Zduriencik have followed this pell mell approach to their first round picks that puts them on an accelerated path to the majors and once they’re here, they get thrown into it and if they struggle, too bad, physician heal thyself. Smoak being perceived as such a great prospect because he was a number one colored their thinking on him too.

It plays out with Seager versus Ackley. Ackley is considered a better prospect, although Seager is ten times the second baseman that Ackley is and looking as if he’s a far better hitter. Not to say Ackely does not ascend from here, as his August numbers suggest he might. Carp is better than Smoak, yet Smoak has been afforded opportunity after opportunity.

Prospects are ready, when they’re ready. Not sooner. They need more and more at bats 800 or so, or 1,000 to where your know, one way or another. Peversely, though guys that are first rounders get those at bats when lower round guys that show promise do not when they scuffle.

It plays out in front of us, every day.

Dave Cameron at www.ussmariner.com has a laudatory piece comparing him to the Randy Johnson in his prime with the Mariners.

The real Geoff Baker, as opposed to last night’s scab, has a great piece on the Cy Young race, showing Felix ahead at the final turn.

If you look at the King, Verlander and Weaver, their OPS Against are virtually identical with Verlander ahead at .576, Felix and Weaver tied at .579. There are a dozen different looks comparing the leaders on the ESPN AL pitching stats. It’s close, very close, but I think Felix is ahead and trending ahead too.

One thing that subjectively shrieks about his performance is how much he wants to win. His urgency to do so almost strips him of any pretense or hipness. He gets the team aspect and seemingly raises the level of play around him, Justin Smoak diving and hustling for crying out loud, players despondent if they make an error behind him. One category that is a separation point for him from the other pitchers is his HBP. Eleven to three for Weaver and Verlander. There was the game against the Yankees where he hit a group of them and broke ARod’s wrist. I know that a number of those were with breaking pitches, but his breaking pitches arrive around 90 mph and I’m not sure they were unintentional looking back, just speculation of course.

To that end like Randy Johnson but even more than Bob Gibson known for throwing inside Felix moves guys off the plate Felix uses everything along with his stuff to compete.

Remember how this season started? The absolutely idiotic trip to Japan to play two games against the Oakland As along with a couple of exhibition games. Players got hurt, players got sick, very sick. It was billed as the first opportunity for the team to be observed by its majority owner Hiroshi Yaumachi, who did not take the opportunity. When quizzed about the opportunity Howard Lincoln acted as if he was insulted that any lackey reporter would dare to ask that question.

Then back to spring training and then a second opening against the As with Carp on the dl and Felix’s fastball down about 89 mph. The lineup stuffed with Figgins and Ichiro.

Bad performances abounded. Justin Smoak’s whines were documented in the paper.

Waiting on the big three who are still out there in the wilds of minor league baseball.

All Star break came and went and finally Ichiro was gone and a huge wait was lifted and the team started playing better and better, a perfect game came and winning streaks, too.

The re-return of Franklin Gutierrez.

Finally what I will call the curse of Hy Zimmerman, one of the early and bad beat writers to cover the Mariners, the two large papers to cover the Mariners, The Times and Tacoma News Tribune, that send writers and columnists to cover the Mariners game by game, including the idiotic trip to Japan, mutually decided to not cover the Mariners on the road, just when they were close to .500 prior to the Chicago trip, they did not cover the games in Chicago. Some AP tiny stories, no blogs entries over the weekend, oh and I should and must mention that TNT just prior to this announced that their great beat reporter Larry Larue, announced is too good a word, stabbed might be better, would no longer write about Mariner baseball. But just terrible coverage for a big city, major league city. It’s kind of a joke actually. The same chuckle-heads spent money on the idiotic trip to Japan by sending reportes, but they’re not going to cover baseball now.

Earlier in the summer they had interns write game stories, the Times did anyway.

So I had enough of this insanity and wrote the executive editor of the Times a David Boardman by name, and asked him why the intern writing stories, why no coverage?

He said it was an economic decision and to paraphrase him he said the Mariners suck, attendance is down and nobody reads about the Mariners and it was common to let interns write mlb game stories. When I rebutted and said that in fact they were playing good baseball and attendance had taken a turn up and could he please identify a mlb game story by an intern in another market. He said they hire quality freelancers in every market and gave me a non-answer on the intern thing.

So lots of sliced bologna and then tonight the Marines win and I checked out the game story and it is written by Pat Borzi a freelance guy that used to blog in New York. The facts were in there about the game but there was a sense that the guy has not been around the team at all and an extra-long bit about Gutierrez getting hit by a pitch. Then he has, or the dingbat sports editor has him post some entries in Geoff Baker’s blog and it’s like a scab event, strike breakers kind of bs.

The Times has kind of gone of the rails this summer with their bizarre coverage of the potential new NBA Arena and now this mess.

Are you a big time paper covering a major league team or are you just crap?

Weird season.

Now that the Mariners were non-players in the Adrian Gonzalez derby and really can you imagine? They would have received Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett, some $40 mm a year in budget, in fact only $22 above this year’s with Ichiro money gone which would have put them below the 2009 Mariner budget.

All of those guys would do well in Safeco, two left handed bats, a great center fielder and gap hitter and a chance for Josh Beckett to win a Cy Young (this deal and park would have been ideal for him). Adrian Gonzalez would have been perfect here, his splits against Seattle suck, so his stats would go up. Anybody would be better than Smoak and their are no free agent guys, so if the Ms are to get better it will be through dumpster diving for cuts.

The Dodgers gave nothing back to the Red Sox, Loney a minor league pitcher rehabbing from TJ surgery and a middling arm. The Mariners could certainly have beat that with some actual prospects.

It suggests more than anything that the Mariner ownership has no interest or trust in their baseball executives or any baseball executives for that matter, which suggests sale of the team to me real soon.

It also suggests rank stupidity. Can you imagine what would have happened to attendance and TV ratings and thus revenue? Would have dwarfed the cost. Over a season 500,000 more in attendance is worth $40,000,000 more in revenue, 1,000,000 $80,000,000 more? You’d still be below 2001, 2002 attendance levels. Just bad businessmen.

They could have done this and still managed their salary ok. So why not do the deal baseball wise? Well Gonzalez in July and August has an OPS of .928 and .972 respectively. Crawford is having surgery on his throwing elbow. Sucked in Boston after leaving Tampa, surgery is no big deal and Los Angeles might present some microscope issues. Beckett can still pitch, but does not seem to be aware that he should not do stupid things on days he’s not pitching. That might be a big deal with Mariners who have traded away guys due to the PR factor around player problems as in Freddie Garcia and Carlos Guillen.

All of these guys passed through waivers before the Dodgers claimed them. The Mariners would have had an earlier claim than the Dodgers.

None of the available free agents at first base match up to Gonzalez and Crawford returning to form is a Safeco type of player. Beckett is a flake but can still pitch.

Swing and a miss.

I’ve been told not to react and write about what beat writers and other blogsters are saying about the Mariners but I can’t help myself, because it represents such low hanging fruit and they are the perfect foil. First we have some more stuff (insert more pithy word if you want) from Larry Stone: I’m going to edit and combine his words into coherence to avoid repeating his 1,136 word, um, opus as it were.

“The Mariners have within their grasp to change the perception of the rebuilding plan — [to] a success.”

“The entire offense is far from miraculously cured, [but}the Mariners are on pace to score 636 runs, which would be 80 more than last season, and 123 more than in 2010. That's progress — and they're headed in the right direction.

[writing about the moves made after the 2007 and 2009 winning seasons] I think the ensuing disasters were two-pronged failures — overrating the talent on hand, and not making the right moves to improve the team.

I think it is incumbent upon them to get at least one proven major league bat, perhaps two, to add to the mix.” Except for the stuff in[ ] his words and what he conveyed, absent of other “stuff”.

That is the second Times guy, Jerry Brewer in the last two days, opining that the Mariners need to sign two bats to compete next year. Below we will talk about the available “bats” in this upcoming free agent shuffle this fall.

Free agent availability or not this is the third Times guy to say that we need to sign big free agent bats to compete, Geoff Baker being the metronomic third member of the trio and we can expand it to a quartet with that self promoter of all self promoters, Dave Cameron of USSMariner.com/fangraphs/Wall Street Journal who urge the move.

The average age of this roster according to ESPN this morning is 26.2 years old, which is in contrast to the 30.0 age of the 2007 and 2009 team. Take out Olivo, Ichiro and Millwood from next year’s team or this year’s calculation to show really how young this team is to suggest that none of the esteemed Times and Wall Street Journal writers get where the core players are on this team.

That is to say that they are projecting the stats of this young group as the apex point of their career now. Which hugely undershoots what they might look like the next three or four years just on the face of things. Secondly, in this park, this team will win on pitching, defense and enough hitting. Thirdly none of those writers project players worth a hoot. I can fill up paragraphs about players that one of them has missed on both ways, said guys were going to make it and didn’t and guys who weren’t good and did become good or great.

There are several somebodies from Zduriencik on down that have put this in motion and all the blather from beat writers looking forward doesn’t mean anything, but when results start to show up it is fun to watch people try to pull their feet out of their mouth.

Who IS an available free agent this fall, pick of the litter for more detail go to link below:

Catcher:

Chris Iannetta *
Russell Martin
Brian McCann *
Miguel Montero
Mike Napoli
Miguel Olivo *
Ronny Paulino
A.J. Pierzynski
Carlos Ruiz *

The (*) means their is either a club option or a mutual option to return. I think it is likely the Mariners acquire a short term cheap option to marry with John Jaso and Jesus Montero until Mike Zunino arrives mid-year, unless he makes the team out of spring training. I think based on his annihilation of AA pitching so far one has to think about the possibility of him making the team.

First Base:

Travis Hafner *
Aubrey Huff *
Adam LaRoche *
Carlos Lee
James Loney
Ty Wigginton *

There is nobody on that list they should sign.

Second Base:

Jeff Baker
Orlando Hudson *
Jeff Keppinger
Freddy Sanchez
Skip Schumaker

They don’t need a second basemen.

Third Base:

Brandon Inge *
Maicer Izturis
Chipper Jones *
Kevin Kouzmanoff
Placido Polanco *
Mark Reynolds *
Scott Rolen
David Wright *
Kevin Youkilis

They don’t need a third basemen and there is nobody on the list other than Wright worthy of looking at and he’d suffer the cross league curse of Jeff Cirilo.

Outfield:

Curtis Granderson
Michael Bourn
Josh Hamilton
Shane Victorino
B.J. Upton
Ichiro Suzuki
Andre Ethier
Torii Hunter
Melky Cabrera
Nick Swisher
Angel Pagan
Carlos Quentin
Delmon Young
Marlon Byrd
Cody Ross

Swisher, Ross, Young and Quentin in that order are interesting, the last two as dhs as well, but big Jesus seems to have a lock on that.

There are some huge names listed above Hamilton, Granderson etc. that this ownership group will not go after and the player most likely would not sign here with this ownership group in place either. I can only hope that Ichiro is not reunited here, but there maybe a warehouse full of bobble head dolls that need to be sold, so don’t rule it out.

http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/baseball/flb/story?page=mlbdk2k12_2013freeagents

I was listening to one of the two sports radio stations today and they were interviewing Times columnist Jerry Brewer and I felt as if there was something missing from my dashboard or steering column. I wanted to push a button that would send some volts into Jerry to get him to stop with the jabberwocky.

I’m going to paraphrase his remarks, but some context is in order for you best get Jerry’s remarks. His message is not solely his, but has coalesced amongst the reporters and columnists. So here we go:

1. They have not really beat anyone, it’s a mirage.
2. They have five guys and Felix, need to spend money on free agents to have better bats in the middle of line up.
3. Team may or not be for sale, have to believe Howard Lincoln’s statement at Ichiro goodbye.
4. Unless they win the wild card and finish .500 or better this does not mean anything.

The first remark has been answered and they have beat who is in front of them. The mirage statement is emblematic of the complete lack of understanding of what has happened and continues to happen.

The winning formula since the all star break has been: 1. pitching 2. defense, and 3. enough hitting. First off, its not just Felix its depth through out the starting rotation and great flexibility with the relief pitching and a great young closer.

What Brewer, Baker, Stone et. al., oddly they’re all with the Times, are postulating is that this team does not look like the Yankees or Red Sox or Cardinals or their fantasy team, or in the case of Baker the 93 Blue Jays. They do look like the Rays, just not as far along in the process as the Rays are.

Here is something none of them get. Looking at the full year stats of players that are playing their first or second full year in the majors do not look like players in their prime. To say they’re inadequate players and you need to get better hitters is wrong. They will continue to improve and get better, but if you want to continue to sign the below top grade free agents like they have for the last twelve years and trade these guys away, I would say its been done to no end here and let this play out some more.

The town’s alive for the first time in years about baseball and you don’t think its good enough. Let’s leave that to later.

They kept Vargas who has done well. Beavan is more than just good, maybe not as good as Fister, but just fine. Iwakuna’s arm appears to have recovered. He’s a great four or five. There are guys coming, not just the big three, but Ramirez and some others that can fill in for Millwood.

This might be one of the best defensive teams in baseball right now. In this park, you don’t want to field a slow pitch softball team. That is why Ryan, Seager and Ackley and Saunders are critical.

The team probably is for sale, maybe not this winter but the next might be very likely.

Whether this team finishes .500 or makes the wild card is not critical to suggest that there has been great, great development and improvement from last year.

That most of the writers in this town do not get what is happening is apparent.

An interesting post by Baker about Dustin Ackley’s defensive success contributing towards wins the past couple of games, to which I say hip hip hooray.

Baker cites Ackley’s high ranking in UZR (ultimate zone ranking) as demonstration of his quality. Well, I love Ackley and all and like his August performance, but UZR is a hugely flawed concept that contributes to the breakdown of the whole WAR stat. Google UZR rankings for a position and you will find that fangraphs comes up virtually every time and on the bottom of their page that the numbers are supplied by some guy named Mitch. Further Google UZR flaws and you will see lengthy discussions of its shortcomings as a stat.

Range factor continues to be a simple and direct measurement of how many balls a guy gets to. Ackley at 4.50, is not bad at that, but he is not superlative. The guy on the Mariners who is by far and away the best second baseman is Kyle Seager at 5.91.

Dave Cameron emerged from his commercial website to write a skree about what the Mariners need to add to get better next year, saying the Ms should get a catcher, third baseman and short stop as free agent acquisitions next winter.

There is a couple of ways to look at this. Apart from the pitching staff, the success of the team has been defense and Brendan Ryan at short stop and Kyle Seager at 3b are the going away backbones of this team. Ryan has been consistent and ranks in the top six amongst shortstops who played 100 games in terms of range factor. Using the same filter, Seager is third amongst third basemen.

Offensively, Ackley has been the most productive hitter for the Mariners this season, certainly well beyond Ackley or anyone else. Jaso in limited time is the best hitter on the team and probably the best catcher. Further it would seem obvious that Mike Zunino will be here between the middle of next year to start of 2014. Sort of dumb to buy a high end free agent catcher in the face of that. Maybe a guy that could platoon a bit and hit right handed after Olivo leaves.

Next a look at who’s available in the free agent pool.

John Jaso has played in seventy seven games this year for the Ms. He has thirty starts as a catcher, two games where he came in as a replacement. He also has forty five games as a dh and pinch hitter. If he had not sat on the bench for the month of April, things might have gone better sooner for the Mariners. He is currently sporting an OPS of .896 which is composed of an onbase percentage of .403 and a slugging percentage of .493. He has been remarkably consistent hitting.

As a catcher amongst the three players on the Ms, he is the best overall receiver(catches balls, blocks balls and runs the game) and throws better than Montero, but not as good as Olivo, whose throwout percentage at 31% is slightly better than Jaso’s 28%. Montero’s down at 22%.

At some level they seem to be waiting for him to get too close to the sun and tumble to the ground. But looking underneath the numbers, his selectivity as seen with his +.400 obpct, is consistent with what he did in 2010 with Rays, but in 2011 he sucked terribly across the board. His BABIP is up above the level in 2010, but not hugely. His walk% is modestly higher. His line drive percentage is way up, highest in his career. That as well as the generalized improvement is consistent with a third year player that might be figuring stuff out.

So you got him and Montero whose post all star offensive numbers are just fine thank you, .809 OPS made up of .351 obpct and .465 slug. Olivo will go away at year end, maybe, but they need a guy to split time with Jaso next spring until Zunino shows up mid-year. Could be Olivo.

Thus the thing to consider is just how good a hitter is Jaso. Right now he’s the best hitter on the team and what has been the pattern of this organization with major league players, is unless a guy is a number one pick, it does not matter how well he plays, he gets jerked here and there.

Between catcher, dh and first base he should get 500 plate appearances. His bat is very special.